In the 2015 UK Restaurant market survey that covers everything from street vending food to fine dining and everything in between, one of the key findings was that loyal customers spend more money than non-loyal customers.
This stands to reason as non-loyal customers may be more price focused and will therefore shop around more, or their loyalties may lie elsewhere and therefore will only shop elsewhere when their preferred choice is not available or not convenient.
So building loyal customers is a cornerstone of nearly every food business. We all like to believe that our customers appreciate and value our products over our competitors, but what exactly do they value most? This is what the survey said:
- 52% picked their most important attribute as Food Quality / Taste – If your customer doesn’t like your food quality / taste, than the game is over before it starts.
- 43% picked their second most important attribute as Previous Experience – We’re only as good as the last meal we served them. Every time they come to spend money in our business is a ‘moment of truth’.
- 25% picked their third most important attribute as Good Value for Money – Price is not nearly as important as we sometimes think it is, and low prices certainly don’t make up for a poor product offer.
And the rest were:
- Convenient location 22%
- Voucher/promotion 19%
- Good environment/atmosphere 18%
- Friendly service 15%
- Inexpensive prices 12%
- Family Friendly 12%
- Product Freshness 11%
- Fast Service 10%
